The headteacher of the independent school that produced three lead actors in the BBC’s hit series The Night Manager has said it would be difficult for state schools to replicate such success, because they are “completely under the cosh” of regulators.

John Baugh, head of the Dragon school in Oxford, where boarders’ fees are as high as £28,000 a year, said he thought the school’s acting success stemmed from its encouragement of all children to have a go at performing or speaking publicly.

In contrast, he said, despite the best efforts of teachers, state schools were unavoidably obsessed with exams, results and Ofsted judgments, leaving little space for children to pursue more creative activities including drama and acting.

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Dragon school has attracted considerable attention in recent days after it emerged that the actors Tom Hiddleston, Hugh Laurie and Tom Hollander – who all starred in the TV adaptation of John le Carré’s spy drama that concluded on Sunday – attended the Oxford prep school, which caters for children aged four to 13, both day pupils and boarders.

Term fees at Dragon school are £9,340 for boarders and £6,480 for day pupils. Photograph: Colinda

Other famous alumni – or “eminent Dragons” as the school puts it – who have made careers on both stage and screen include Harry Potter star Emma Watson, comedian Jack Whitehall, Pirates of the Caribbean actor Jack Davenport, BBC crime series Silent Witness actor Tom Ward, Max Irons (the actor son of Jeremy), stage and screen actor Christopher Cazenove, and Hugh Dancy, star of US TV series Hannibal.

“We’ve some great drama teachers,” said Baugh, who has been head since 2002, “but I don’t think it’s that particularly which allows children to develop in this area. It’s more that the school teaches them that it’s OK to have a go, it’s OK not to follow convention.

“If you want to be a young comedian, a young Jack Whitehall, go on and do it. If you want to be an actor or actress, that’s OK. You don’t have to take the conventional route.”

Asked whether he thought the school’s success could be replicated in the state school system, Baugh said: “It’s very hard because of the resourcing, and there’s an obsession with Sats, which seem to be the only measure of whether a school is deemed to be successful or not.

“They don’t have the time or the space to do some of the incredible things other children in other schools can do.”

Baugh has witnessed some of the constraints facing state school teachers as a result of the Dragon school’s role as lead sponsor of the Blackbird academy trust, which includes three primary schools in Blackbird Leys, a deprived area of Oxford.

Jack Whitehall is among the Dragon school’s famous alumni. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA

“In our academy trust, the leadership there is really keen to try to help develop these things in the school, but are finding it difficult timewise and because of resources.

“They can’t be seen to take their eye off the assessment ball. They can’t be seen to miss those baseline marks, those scores – they’ve got to achieve, otherwise they are deemed to be underperforming, poor schools, which they are not. But that seems to be the only judgment.”

He warned: “Unless somehow the reins are loosened a bit to allow more space and more time, I’m afraid it will be more assessment. It’s all data-based from what I can see.

“It’s not based on whether these children are in productions, or are happy or are encouraged to play musical instruments. They are just completely under the cosh. They are forced into other priorities. It seems this is the only assessment that matters.”

The Dragon school, which is divided between two sites in north Oxford, was founded in 1877 by a group of Oxford University dons for their own children, and provided an unconventional approach to education based on the belief that children should enjoy school and understand the world around them.

The soaring cost of school fees – £9,340 a term for boarding at the Dragon and £6,480 for day school – have put it beyond the reach of most university staff, though Baugh rejects charges of elitism and points out that approximately 10% of the school’s pupils benefit from some kind of bursary, up to full fees.

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Hiddleston, Hollander and Laurie pre-date the current head, but Baugh was in charge when the young Emma Watson, who made her name as Hogwarts brainbox Hermione Granger, was combining life at the Dragon while filming the Harry Potter films.

“When she went off for two or three months to film, she would come back and get on with school life. The school did not make a great fuss of it. She enjoyed the balance of coming back and having a normal school life rather than just being famous. To her friends she was just Emma.”

The thespian tradition lives on. Among the current cohort are children who have had lead roles in West End shows including Oliver, Les Misérables, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Matilda. “I do get quite a number of requests from children and parents. ‘So and so has got another audition for another production, can they take the afternoon off?’” said Baugh.

Children at the school are currently involved in musicals in London’s West End, including Matilda. Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian

“There are quite a number who are very keen and there’s a sense that this is possible. They’ve seen other children grow up and do these things. Sometimes there’s a certain something you can see in a child. They are hungry. They are really keen to make a go of it.”

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There has been growing concern in the acting profession about the dominance of actors from a privileged background and the potential barriers to working-class talent. Stars including Sir Ian McKellen, Julie Walters, Christopher Eccleston and David Morrissey have denounced what they see as a new economic shift which excludes many would-be actors from breaking into a notoriously unstable profession.

The opportunities provided at independent schools like the Dragon – and equally famously Eton College – clearly play their part. At the Dragon, every childfrom a very young age is encouraged to take part in small class-based productions. It gets more serious in years 7 and 8 when children start to audition for parts, and recent and forthcoming productions including Fame the musical, Fantastic Mr Fox, and the Lion King.

Baugh says success will depend on an individual’s drive and work ethic, but acknowledges that many of the UK’s most successful actors have come through independent schools.

“They have to have a degree of confidence in what they are doing – the confidence to have a go and if it does not work out, fall back on other things.”